


Forge

by Nununununu



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Attraction, Character Study, Don't copy to another site, F/F, Femslash, First Meetings, Gen, Holding Hands, Jakku, Pre-Relationship, Takodana
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:07:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25282858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nununununu/pseuds/Nununununu
Summary: Those Rey encounters and the one she comes to fight alongside.
Relationships: Gamora (Marvel)/Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 10
Collections: Crossworks 2020





	Forge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [flipflop_diva](https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/gifts).



> A fusion universe in which events from Guardians Of The Galaxy & The Force Awakens play out somewhat differently. Written in four sections of 250 words.
> 
> (Originally posted 29/08; date changed for author reveals)

The desert is no place for a tree.

Rey hoards water like anyone eking out an existence on Jakku, knows how to store and conceal it, how to make what little she has last. Brutal fights have broken out amongst scavengers over the last drops in someone’s rusty canteen; she’s been privy to them enough to know when to ready her staff, when to knock someone over at the ankles so they appear to bow out early, saving them the energy they can’t afford while dehydrated in the heat. She knows when to keep her head down and not show signs of thirst, just as she knows when an offer of a few mouthfuls, a few sips, will help with bargaining and establish trust.

She also knows when to fight and hold her ground and show no sign of weakness, and to never ever allow any hands or fingers or other appendages to come near the repurposed scrap she uses to store her water.

And yet, when Rey emerges from the twisted remains of an ancient craft she’s been using as shelter one viciously heat-drenched morning, and sees a creature she only much later identifies as reminiscent of a tree desperately struggling not to droop where it stands not far from her home –

She doesn’t question it. She simply hastens back inside to gather up as much as she can possibly spare and still survive herself, and hurries across the sand to offer it.

“I am Groot,” The tree beams.

She meets Nebula in the middle of a fight, the other woman struggling furiously amongst a mass of grunting, grasping scavengers, each straining to tear off a handful of unfamiliar technology in the hope of trading them for credits; for passage out of here; for another food packet. For something more than the near nothing they all have.

Nebula is making noise as well. A harsh cry as she buries her fist in someone’s face, unprotected by the goggles around their neck; a huff of exertion as she kicks another attacker in the chest. Little enough emotion in her expression to say whether she requires aid or not, but Rey has always been able to read people, to read a crowd, and surges into the fray without thinking about it.

Between her staff and Nebula’s frenzied swings, the fight is over in another few minutes.

“Try to touch me and I’ll rip your arm off,” Nebula snarls at her when they’re the last ones standing, the other woman breathing hard, rotating her mechanical elbow until it slots back into place.

“I can fix those,” Rey nods at the sparking wires protruding from Nebula’s cheek, “If you like.”

“I can fix _myself_ ,” Nebula insists, but relents enough to share Rey’s water after Rey has drunk some first.

“I am here on my father’s orders,” Is all Nebula will say of her presence on Jakku.

_I’m here because of my father too,_ Rey doesn’t guess. But it feels – not wrong, she thinks.

Rey encounters Rocket on Takodana. She’s scanning the room, carefully casual, with her arm on the back of the seat as if she isn’t ready to grab her staff at the slightest provocation.

There’s a roar from a group of drinkers over in one crowded corner that drowns out the music played by the motley band. Someone shrieks, slapping credits down in challenge, while a trio furtively plot together, hoods over faces, huddled close.

It’s not enough to distract her from the _ping_ that goes up in the back of her mind – one that served her well back in Jakku, informing her she’s about to be robbed.

“Ahh, you ain’t got nothing worth taking anyway, have you, lady,” The small, furred creature puts his hands up, evading her, when she snaps her own down to catch the would-be-thief’s wrist. The lights catch on sharp teeth as someone huge brushes past, jostling him, and he snarls.

“No one here’s got anything worth taking,” he grouses as if uncaring that Rey can overhear, “Whole galaxy’s using stuff that’s pretty much shit.” The dismissive sweep of his hand seems to take in the various weaponry sported by the inhabitants of the room, “How’re we going to come up with something to stop that blue moron from attacking Xandar? Not that anyone here knows or cares.”

“Who’s the ‘blue moron’?” Something twinges, harder, in the back of Rey’s head. Not the woman she met –

“You don’t want to know,” Rocket gripes, but she does.

Gamora moves like the wind made into a weapon. Wielding her lightsaber with self-taught precision, Rey whirls to meet another opponent and tries not to stare.

“You too are searching for these ‘stones’?” she calls over the ruckus.

“On my father’s orders,” Gamora brings her swords around in a brutal sweep, “I have no intention of giving them to him.”

“I’m searching for a man,” Rey tells her, when they have cleared the area and are leaning against a long-ago burned out wreck of an Imperial ship, sharing her canteen, “Perhaps we can search together.”

“My father’s other children are likely to come after us,” Gamora warns after a silence in which Rey senses a wealth of things that go unsaid, “Ronan is overconfident; we will defeat him if we plan carefully. But Nebula will not stop.”

“Your sister won’t fight with us?” Rey can’t help but ask.

“It’s unlikely after the way we were brought up,” Gamora’s gaze goes distant, “One day, perhaps.”

“I think I met her once,” Memory stirs with the Force around Rey, tinged with the colour of Gamora’s unspoken regret, “It’s likely I’ll also be pursued.”

“ _We_ are the pursuers,” Turning to face Rey as she passes back the canteen, Gamora doesn’t pull away when their fingers brush, “ _They_ are simply drawn along in our wake.”

Her gaze is lambent, bright for all its hardness. An undercurrent of unyielding determination beneath her surface cool. 

Nodding, Rey takes the hand Gamora holds out in offer.

“Yes.”

**Author's Note:**

> _My headcanon here is that the GOTG and TFA teams both end up getting together as one big group and taking down both Kylo Ren/the First Order and Ronan, then Thanos :)_


End file.
